Originally Posted by
ancientaviator62
The inboards on the Hastings were 'throttled back' when dropping paras and then increased again on the 'troops gone' call. This posed problems for the despatchers manually trying to retrieve the bags ! But at least the paras did not cross behind the a/c.
On the Hercules crossover and collisions was always a problem on side door exits which despite some less than clever schemes was never solved. It was accepted by the army as an occupational hazard. Over the ramp jumping and other airdrops were not a problem.
It sounds as if the A400 has more severe problems. Perhaps someone could enlighten us.
I am no longer involved in these things but as I understand the first deployments of dummies from the side doors to test a hung up parachutist damaged the fuselage. Same happened on the C130J. Short one was worse for crossover, put down to lack of tanks. Not sure if this has been assessed since tanks had been added.
Over the ramp static line parachutists and boxes were “sucked” forward. Fix was to lower the undercarriage.
Never saw a problem with Freefall but they made a great play when the head of Airbus made the first jump. Just showed that Sir Issac had been right all along.
I always anticipated that the latches for platforms would never be 1x 10^-6 for anything like an MSP or small TypeV platform.
Rumour has it that they have been working towards dropping small vehicles. Probably nothing more than was dropped from Halifax around D day!
I remember being in town when it was announced the C17 was inbound but could not be used tactically. The SF Colonel said. “Paint them white and park them up at Brize Norton” nearly 20 years later money is being spent developing tactical clearances for C17